Awesome way to increase confidence in children (& self-worth!)

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This is such an amazing way for anyone (teacher, Sunday school teacher, parent, caregiver) to increase confidence in children, build self-worth and encourage teamwork.

My good friend, Kristy, recently attended an open-house at a phenomenal school in the area. Yesterday she came over afterwards and told me about all of the amazing things that they are doing in this local charter school. One of them has really stuck with me. It has made such an impression that last night we started a new ‘nightly ritual’ doing this very thing at our own house. This is perfect for a school classroom, Sunday School (even at a staff meeting!) or just in your family. I love it!

What you do:
Take a basket and put everyone’s name in the basket.
The leader (I would either use the grown-up or a helper… you could make this a ‘job’ for a student) takes one name from the basket and puts it aside (This name will not be put back into the basket until all of the names have been pulled- one every day until it is empty).
Everyone says one nice thing about that person (the person on the card). It can be anything from “I like your shoes.” (kindergarteners idea of a great compliment) to “I love the way that you always help me on my school work.” to “You are an amazing singer!” Anything works!

If I were still teaching in a classroom, I would probably have done this at the end of the day, once the kids were all packed up and ready to leave for the day. I would give myself about 15-20 minutes for this activity and it would be our closing activity. Wouldn’t you love to leave with a compliment from a friend?

The SECOND part of this activity is that the person accepting the compliment has to look into the eyes of the person giving the compliment and say “Thank you.” How many times have our kids not thanked someone with a genuine “Thank you”, while looking at them? How many times have we, as adults, said “Oh- no… anyone would do that.” Or “Me? Gosh.. no, but thanks” when we receive a compliment? It is so much better to just look them in the eyes and give a sincere “Thank you!” I love the thought of teaching our kids HOW to accept a compliment.

I started this last night in our house.
I put of four kid’s names in a basket, along with “Mommy” and “Daddy”. I picked one child’s name from the basket and each of us had to say one nice thing about that person. It was great! You should have seen our almost-5-year-old’s face when he heard his big brother give him a fantastic compliment. Priceless!